Sports Desk40 minutes ago
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West Indies’ tour of Australia earlier this year cost the Board a total of US$2 million.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) may release a new fund for other cricket boards except the Big Three to promote Test cricket from 2025.
Its aim is to promote Test cricket while also ensuring that other boards can compete with lucrative franchise leagues. It was primarily initiated by Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Mark Baird and was supported by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England Cricket Board (ECB).
The aim of this initiative of ICC is that a central fund can be created to pay a good match fee to the players of different boards. According to a report of ESPN, after this fund, the match fee of a player in a test match can be around 8 lakhs. In such a situation, it is expected that this proposal will get approval by December this year and it will be implemented from next year. This will make test cricket a center of attraction not only for players playing test cricket but also for players playing shorter formats like T-20. This fund will also benefit cricket boards with less funds.
The Big Three cricket boards are not included in this fund.
The new fund could be US$ 15 million
The new amount to be released to the cricket board could be around 15 million US dollars i.e. around 125 crore Indian rupees. According to reports, this proposal has the support of BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and ECB President Richard Thompson. However, its discussion is still at an early stage and so far no discussion has been held in this regard by the ICC at the board or executive committee level.
Other countries except India, Australia and England will benefit
Except India, Australia and England, the other nine countries playing Test cricket have to bear losses. Earlier this year, Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer Johnny Grave had said that the tour of Australia at the beginning of the year cost the board a total of US $ 2 million.
They benefited from the ECB agreeing to play three T20Is in the Caribbean in 2023. Last month, the ECB also agreed to facilitate an Under-19 tour of the West Indies at home in exchange for a Test series in England.